WEBVTT TIME OF HIS CRIME. >> I THINK IT WAS MY DOG’S LEASH. >> GEORGE MACNEILL DESCRIBING THE WEAPON HE USED TO STRANGLE 15-YEAR-OLD BONNIE SUE MITCHELL BACK IN 1981. HE WAS 16 AT THE TIME. THE MURDER HAPPENED AT PINE GROVE CEMETERY IN LYNN. HE STRANGLED HER, TYING BONNIE SUE TO A TOILET INSIDE AN ABANDONED OUTBUILDING. >> ASIDE FROM THE VICTIM HERE, HAVE YOU HARMED ANYONE ELSE IN YOUR LIFETIME? >> N >> ORIGINALLY SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE, AN SJC RULING MAKES THAT SENTENCE ILLEGAL FOR CONVICTED JUVENILES. TODAY, MACNEILL ROCKING BACK AND FORTH IN FRONT OF A PAROLE BOARD , DESCRIBING A CHAOTIC CHILDHOOD, INCLUDING SEXUAL ABUSE. >> HOW MANY PEOPLE VICTIMIZED YOU SEXUALLY AS A CHILD? 12. >> THE VICTIM’S FAMILY ALSO AT THE HEARING, EMOTIONAL AND FIGHTING TO KEEP MACNEILL BEHIND BARS. HERE I AM TODAY LISTENING TO HIS ACT. OF COURSE HE WOULD SAY THIS TO THIS PERSON, THAT TO THAT PERSON, CLAIMING MENTAL ILLNESS. FOR GOD’S SAKE. IT’S A JOKE. >> TODAY’S PROCEEDINGS LASTIN ABOUT THREE HOURS, AFTER WHICH, THE VICTIM’S FAMILY SPOKE OUTSIDE. >> HE SHOWED NOTHING. HE DIDN’T EVEN LOOK AT ME WHEN I WAS TALKING. >> SO NOW THIS CASE REMAINS OPEN FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. AFTER THAT, THE PAROLE BOARD WILL REVIEW AND M

A man who killed a teenager in a Massachusetts cemetery decades ago pleaded Tuesday to be released form prison.Bonnie Sue Mitchell was 15 when she was killed in 1981. Her then boyfriend, George MacNeill, was convicted of murder. MacNeill was 16 years old when a jury found him guilty of strangling her inside the bathroom at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn.He sentenced to life without parole, but the SJC recently ruled sentences for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional. The ruling gives MacNeill a chance to be released.Many who support the family and other victims are protesting in an effort to keep him behind bars. Mitchell's family delivered statements Tuesday at the hearing."Why put him out in the world. I mean he admitted that he did it because he didn’t want her around. What’s going to happen when he doesn’t want someone else around?” Mitchell’s sister said.MacNeill has undergone years of mental health treatment for anxiety and depression. Throughout Tuesday's hearing, he rocked in his seat and spoke quietly. He described a chaotic childhood and said 12 people sexually abused him as a child.MacNeill told the parole board that he has trouble remembering and could not recall many of the details of the murder. At another point, he spoke about hearing voices in his cell.

LYNN, Mass. —

A man who killed a teenager in a Massachusetts cemetery decades ago pleaded Tuesday to be released form prison.

Bonnie Sue Mitchell was 15 when she was killed in 1981. Her then boyfriend, George MacNeill, was convicted of murder.

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MacNeill was 16 years old when a jury found him guilty of strangling her inside the bathroom at the Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn.

He sentenced to life without parole, but the SJC recently ruled sentences for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional. The ruling gives MacNeill a chance to be released.

Many who support the family and other victims are protesting in an effort to keep him behind bars. Mitchell's family delivered statements Tuesday at the hearing.

"Why put him out in the world. I mean he admitted that he did it because he didn’t want her around. What’s going to happen when he doesn’t want someone else around?” Mitchell’s sister said.

MacNeill has undergone years of mental health treatment for anxiety and depression. Throughout Tuesday's hearing, he rocked in his seat and spoke quietly.

He described a chaotic childhood and said 12 people sexually abused him as a child.

MacNeill told the parole board that he has trouble remembering and could not recall many of the details of the murder. At another point, he spoke about hearing voices in his cell.